THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1814.
[Sidenote: Operations about Niagara.]
In the spring of 1814 another invasion of Canada was planned; but there
was much delay. Not until the 3d of July did Generals Scott and Ripley,
with three thousand men, cross the Niagara and capture Fort Erie. On
the following day the Americans advanced in the direction of Chippewa
village, but were met by the British, led by General Riall. On the
evening of the 5th a severe battle was fought on the plain south of
Chippewa Creek. The Americans, led on by Generals Scott and Ripley, won
the day.
[Illustration: OPERATIONS ABOUT NIAGARA.]
2. General Riall retreated to Burlington Heights. On the evening of
the 25th of July, General Scott, commanding the American right, found
himself confronted by Riall's army, on the high grounds in sight
of Niagara Falls. Here was fought the hardest battle of the war.
Scott held his own until reinforced by other divisions of the army.
The British reserves were brought into action. Twilight faded into
darkness. A detachment of Americans, getting upon the British rear,
captured General Riall and his staff. The key to the enemy's position
was a high ground crowned with a battery. Calling Colonel James Miller
to his side, General Brown said, "Colonel, take your regiment and
storm that battery." "I'LL TRY, SIR," was Miller's answer; and he _did_
take it, and held it against three assaults of the British. General
Drummond was wounded, and the royal army, numbering five thousand,
was driven from the field with a loss of more than eight hundred. The
Americans lost an equal number.
[Illustration: Colonel Miller at Lundy's Lane.]
3. After this battle of Niagara, or Lundy's Lane, the American forces
fell back to Fort Erie. General Gaines crossed over from Buffalo, and
assumed command of the army. General Drummond received reinforcements,
and on the 4th of August invested Fort Erie. The siege continued
until the 17th of September, when a sortie was made and the works
of the British were carried. General Drummond then raised the siege
and retreated to Fort George. On the 5th of November Fort Erie was
destroyed by the Americans, who recrossed the Niagara and went into
winter quarters at Black Rock and Buffalo.
4. The winter of 1813-14 was passed by the army of the North at Fort
Covington. At this time, the American fleet on Lake Champlain was
commanded by Commodore McDonough. The British general Prevost now
advanced into New York at the head of fourteen thousand men, and
ordered Commodore Downie to ascend the Sorel with his fleet.
[Sidenote: Battle of Plattsburgh.]
5. The invading army reached Plattsburgh. Commodore McDonough's
squadron lay in the bay. On the 6th of September, Macomb retired with
his forces to the south bank of the Saranac. For four days the British
renewed their efforts to cross the river. Downie's fleet was now ready
for action, and a general battle was planned for the 11th. Prevost's
army was to carry Macomb's position, while the British flotilla was
to bear down on McDonough. The naval battle began first, and was
obstinately fought for two hours and a half. Downie and many of his
officers were killed; the heavier British vessels were disabled and
obliged to strike their colors. The smaller ships escaped. After a
severe action, the British army on the shore was also defeated. Prevost
retired precipitately to Canada; and the English ministry began to
devise measures of peace.
[Sidenote: The British Burn Washington.]
6. Late in the summer Admiral Cochrane arrived off the coast of
Virginia with an armament of twenty-one vessels. General Ross, with
an army of four thousand veterans, came with the fleet. The American
squadron, commanded by Commodore Barney, was unable to oppose so
powerful a force. The enemy entered the Chesapeake with the purpose of
attacking Washington and Baltimore. The larger division sailed into the
Patuxent, and on the 19th of August, the forces of General Ross were
landed at Benedict. Commodore Barney was obliged to blow up his vessels
and take to the shore. From Benedict the British advanced against
Washington. At Bladensburg, six miles from the capital, they were
met, on the 24th of the month, by the forces of Barney. Here a battle
was fought. The militia behaved badly; Barney was defeated and taken
prisoner. The President, the cabinet, and the people betook themselves
to flight; and Ross marched unopposed into Washington. All the public
buildings except the Patent Office were burned, together with many of
the public archives. The unfinished Capitol and the President's house
were left a mass of ruins.
[Sidenote: The Siege of Baltimore.]
7. Five days afterwards a portion of the British fleet reached
Alexandria. The inhabitants purchased the forbearance of the enemy by
the surrender of twenty-one ships, sixteen thousand barrels of flour,
and a thousand hogsheads of tobacco. After the capture of Washington,
General Ross proceeded with his army and fleet to lay siege to the city
of Baltimore. The militia, to the number of ten thousand, gathered
under command of General Samuel Smith. On the 12th of September the
British were landed at the mouth of the Patapsco, and the fleet began
the ascent of the river. The land-forces were met by the Americans
under General Stricker. A skirmish ensued, in which General Ross
was killed; but Colonel Brooks assumed command, and the march was
continued. Near the city the British came upon the American lines and
were brought to a halt.
8. Meanwhile the British squadron had ascended the Patapsco and begun
the bombardment of Fort McHenry. From sunrise of the 13th until after
midnight, the guns of the fleet poured a tempest of shells upon the
fortress.[C] At the end of that time the works were as strong as at the
beginning. The British had undertaken more than they could accomplish.
Disheartened and baffled, they ceased to fire. The land-forces retired,
and the siege of Baltimore was at an end.
[Footnote C: During the night of this bombardment, Francis S. Key, who
was detained on board a British ship in the bay, composed _The Star
Spangled Banner_.]
9. On the 9th and 10th of August the village of Stonington,
Connecticut, was bombarded by Commodore Hardy; but the British,
attempting to land, were driven back. The fisheries of New England were
broken up. The salt-works at Cape Cod escaped by the payment of heavy
ransoms. All the harbors from Maine to Delaware were blockaded. The
foreign commerce of the Eastern States was totally destroyed.
[Sidenote: The Hartford Convention.]
10. From the beginning, many of the people of New England had opposed
the war. The members of the Federal party cried out against it. The
legislature of Massachusetts advised the calling of a convention. The
other Eastern States responded to the call; and on the 14th of December
the delegates assembled at Hartford. The leaders of the Democratic
party did not hesitate to say that the purposes of the assembly were
disloyal and treasonable. After remaining in session, with closed
doors, for nearly three weeks, the delegates published an address, and
then adjourned. The political prospects of those who participated in
the convention were ruined.
[Sidenote: Affairs in the South.]
11. During the progress of the war the Spanish authorities of Florida
sympathized with the British. In August of 1814 a British fleet was
allowed by the commandant of Pensacola to use that post for the purpose
of fitting out an expedition against Fort Bowyer, on the bay of Mobile.
General Jackson, who commanded in the South, remonstrated with the
Spaniards, but received no satisfaction. He thereupon marched a force
against Pensacola, stormed the town, and drove the British out of
Florida.
12. General Jackson next learned that the British were making
preparations for the conquest of Louisiana. Repairing to New Orleans,
he declared martial law, mustered the militia, and adopted measures for
repelling the invasion. The British army, numbering twelve thousand,
came from Jamaica, under Sir Edward Pakenham. On the 10th of December
the squadron entered Lake Borgne, sixty miles northeast of New Orleans.
[Illustration: The Battle of New Orleans.]
13. On the 22d of the month Pakenham's advance reached the Mississippi,
nine miles below the city. On the night of the 23d Generals Jackson
and Coffee advanced with two thousand Tennessee riflemen to attack
the British camp. After a bloody assault, Jackson was obliged to fall
back to a strong position on the canal, four miles below the city.
Pakenham advanced, and on the 28th cannonaded the American position. On
New Year's day the attack was renewed, and the enemy was driven back.
Pakenham now made arrangements for a general battle.
[Sidenote: The Battle of New Orleans.]
14. Jackson was ready. Earthworks had been constructed, and a long line
of cotton-bales and sand-bags thrown up for protection. On the 8th of
January the British moved forward. The battle began with the light of
morning, and was ended before nine o'clock. Column after column of
the British was smitten with irretrievable ruin. Jackson's men were
almost entirely secure from the enemy's fire, while every discharge
of the Tennessee and Kentucky rifles told with awful effect on the
exposed veterans of England. Pakenham was killed; General Gibbs was
mortally wounded. Only General Lambert was left to call the fragments
of the army from the field. Of the British, seven hundred were killed,
fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred taken prisoners. The
American loss amounted to _eight killed and thirteen wounded_.
15. General Lambert retired with his ruined army. Jackson marched
into New Orleans and was received with great enthusiasm. Such was
the close of the war on land. On the 20th of February the American
_Constitution_, off Cape St. Vincent, captured two British vessels, the
_Cyane_ and the _Levant_. On the 23d of March the American _Hornet_
ended the conflict, by capturing the British _Penguin_ off the coast of
Brazil.
[Sidenote: Treaty of Ghent.]
16. Already a treaty of peace had been made. In the summer of 1814,
American commissioners were sent to Ghent, in Belgium, and were there
met by the ambassadors of Great Britain. The agents of the United
States were John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan
Russell, and Albert Gallatin. On the 24th of December a treaty was
agreed to and signed. In both countries the news was received with deep
satisfaction. On the 18th of February the treaty was ratified by the
Senate, and peace was publicly proclaimed.
17. The only significance of the treaty was that Great Britain and
the United States agreed to be at peace. Not one of the issues, to
decide which the war had been undertaken, _was even mentioned_. Of the
impressment of American seamen not a word was said. The wrongs done
to the commerce of the United States were not referred to. Of "free
trade and sailors' rights," the battle-cry of the American navy, no
mention was made. The treaty was chiefly devoted to the settlement of
unimportant boundaries and the possession of some small islands in the
Bay of Passamaquoddy.
[Sidenote: Condition of the Country.]
18. The country was now burdened with a war-debt of one hundred million
dollars. The monetary affairs of the nation were in a deplorable
condition. The charter of the Bank of the United States expired in
1811, and the other banks had been obliged to suspend specie payment.
Trade was paralyzed for the want of money. In 1816 a bill was passed
by Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States. The President
interposed his veto; but in the following session the bill was again
passed in an amended form. On the 4th of March, 1817, the bank went
into operation; and the business and credit of the country began to
revive.
[Sidenote: Decatur in the Barbary States.]
19. During the war with Great Britain the Algerine pirates renewed
their depredations on American commerce. The government of the United
States now ordered Commodore Decatur to proceed to the Mediterranean
and chastise the sea-robbers into submission. After capturing two of
their frigates he sailed into the Bay of Algiers, and obliged the
frightened dey to make a treaty. The Moorish emperor released his
American prisoners, relinquished all claims to tribute, and gave a
pledge that his ships should trouble American merchantmen no more.
Decatur next sailed against Tunis and Tripoli, compelled these states
to give pledges of good conduct, and to pay large sums for former
depredations.
[Sidenote: Indiana Admitted.]
20. The close of Madison's administration was signalized by the
admission of Indiana into the Union. The new commonwealth was admitted
in December, 1816. About the same time was founded the Colonization
Society of the United States. Many distinguished Americans became
members of the association, the object of which was to provide a refuge
for free persons of color. Liberia, in western Africa, was selected
as the seat of the proposed colony. Immigrants arrived in sufficient
numbers to found a flourishing negro State. The capital was named
Monrovia, in honor of James Monroe, who, in the fall of 1816, was
elected as Madison's successor. Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, was
chosen Vice-president.